Re: Ideas for a cant-derived conlang

Sounds quite interesting. I assume it will use English words as the basis
for these changes?

-----Original Message-----
From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU] On
Behalf Of Peter Bleackley
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2003 8:43 AM
To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
Subject: Ideas for a cant-derived conlang

I've had an idea for a conlang which ultimately derived from a cant. This
is the language of a culture of itinerant river traders, who used cant to
discuss matters of trade with each other without being understood by
outsiders. In time the cant developed into a fully featured language.
Processes involved included
Semantic inversions, eg "house" swaps meaning with "boat", "land" swaps
meaning with "water", genitive becomes a construct case.
Using idiomatic expressions to replace their literal meaning entirely, eg
"mature" becomes "leafblossom", from the expression "with leaf and blossom".
Mixing of metaphors - deliberately confusing two idiomatic expressions for
the same thing taken from different dialects to produce an expression
comprehensible in neither of the original dialects.
New phonotactic and morphological rules, with words altered to fit them.

Pete

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